C.W. Stoneking

Mon 23rd Mar, 2009 in Features

C.W. Stoneking and I have reached a classic impasse – we can’t agree on which animals make up the – œBig Five’ on an African safari. I make the first suggestion, of giraffe, rhinoceros, elephant, lion and leopard.

CW: Leopard? Nah, I don’t think leopards in there, man. I think the guy was tricking you. Isn’t it hippo or something?

FL: Maybe giraffe isn’t in there, but hippo is…

CW: The giraffe isn’t there? I’d put the giraffe in before I put the leopard in. A leopard’s just an inferior lion.

FL: I think it might be because they’re rare, rather than because they’re big.

CW: But the next is something like a water buffalo, or gazelle, or something…

FL: Well maybe that fifth spot is like a wild card, and they just fill it with whatever you happen to see. “Oh, yeah, man, the bull-ant is in the Big Five, for sure!”

CW: Well there’s lots of things like that. Not to downgrade your experience or anything…

We’re talking safari because C.W. Stoneking is something of a globetrotter. He’s about to take off to Mexico for a couple of months – play some tunes, listen to some new sounds and generally avoid “doing any wheelin’ and dealin’” for a little bit. But for anyone who has picked up his latest album, Jungle Blues, the story we want to hear is about how he ended up in Africa in the first place…

“I was down in Trinidad, trying to find somebody to teach me some of the good old calypso guitar playing that they used to do back in the old days. And I got hooked up with some American travellers who were taking their boat around and who turned out to be big blues fanatics as well. I’d just been in New Orleans before that too.

“So we got together, having a few drinks, and I was playing some songs. And I wasn’t really having much luck in Trinidad with what I wanted to do there, so they invited me to come on their boat with them. And we spent a couple of weeks sailing around until one of them managed to sink their boat off the coast of Gabon, in west Africa.”

A shipwreck? Who has shipwrecks anymore? But that’s the sort of guy that C.W. Stoneking is. On stage, anyway. Off stage, he is Christopher William, who lived in Balmain in Sydney’s inner-west when he was a teenager, and tried his hand at a number of different guitar styles. Including, briefly, a little bit of metal. But instead, he was sucked into the world of old blues.

It seems a little odd, I suggest, for someone to make music that’s so out of sync with their immediate environment. How is it that there’s such a discrepancy between Christopher William, the man, and C.W. Stoneking, the 1920s Steinbeck-dustbowl troubadour?

“I guess as far as the records go, I’m much more following my personal imagination, and little things that I’ve seen and I like more than the feelings I’m getting off Video Hits, or from hanging out – œon the scene’, or whatever. So I guess that’s where the uniqueness comes from. And as for the character, that comes from that, too. It’s in its own world, I guess.”

And what about the shipwreck story on the back of Jungle Blues?

“Well I wrote it in that – œadventuring’ way, sort of dime-store, Joseph Conrad kind of way. But that’s part of the thing, you know? With jungle music, you have to over-paint it a bit. There’s rules for every genre, and it has to be kind of…not gaudy, but lurid and overdone a bit.”

So what’s next, then? Jungle Blues was such a success you would be excused for assuming he would be charging back into the studio to capitalise on his newfound fame that, amongst other things, saw Jungle Blues shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize. But that would be far too predictable.

“I have been getting interested in some of the Italian opera, and seeing parallels between that and some of the early, classic blues – people like Bessie Smith and that. So there’s a chance it could be some kind of mix-up to do with that, in amongst other things.”

Oh…okay. Wasn’t expecting that. What about the next gig, then? Oh, you’re playing at Melbourne Zoo for Earth Hour.

“Yeah, that should be interesting. Hopefully the lions don’t drown us out too bad. I had to leave my safari gun at customs when I came back from Africa, so I won’t be able to subdue them if they don’t like our tunes.”

Not that that’s likely. But it seems as though C.W. Stoneking is a man of infinite surprises. So anything is possible.

FL note – the Big Five is Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Cape Buffalo. And don’t say we don’t try to teach you something every now and again.

C.W. Stoneking is currently journeying around the country on the – œLove Me Or Die’ tour. He then plays the East and West Coast Blues and Roots Festivals in April.

Tues 24 Mar – Geelong Performing Arts Centre – Blakiston Theatre, Geelong
Fri 27 Mar – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Sat 28 Mar – Earth Hour: Live at the Zoo, Melbourne Zoo
Sun 29 Mar – The Palais, Hepburn Springs, Victoria
Sun 5 Apr – The Tivoli, Brisbane
Tues 7 Apr – The Boogie Shack, Toowoomba
Wed 8 Apr – Sands Tavern, Maroochydore, Queensland
Fri 10 Apr – East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay
Sat 11 Apr – East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Byron Bay
Sat 18 Apr – West Coast Blues and Roots Festival, Fremantle